Posts Tagged ‘kitchen’

Rick Montoya, president of Valencia Welding, Inc., has worked at Santa Clarita Valley’s Industrial Park for almost 30 years and has done welding with a variety of metals during that time span, from steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and even titanium alloys in aerospace applications. Unbeknown to me, a non-welding techie, it turns out that there are many, many ways to stick two pieces of metal together. I won’t give you the earful that Rick gave me, but a small primer about what holds your copper pipes together as well as the titanium tubes in the B-2 Bomber, is forthcoming.

Welding has come a long way in a very short time span. Even as recently as the end of the 1800s, welding consisted of one process alone: forge welding, the process in which blacksmiths joined metals together by heating and hammering them. However, by the start of World War I, a demand for reliable and inexpensive joining methods brought forth new arc welding and related processes. The Space Age in the 1950s demanded precision, giving birth to laser beam and electron beam welding. By the turn of the 21st century, the industry had a wide array of welding processes at their disposal.

I alluded to a specific type of welding, but generally speaking, what is welding? It is a fabrication process that joins materials, such as metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence and is usually done by melting the parts with a filler material, forming a pool of molten material that, when cool, becomes a strong joint, depending on the metals used. On the other hand, the titanium welds that Rick has performed were done in a Spacetron Vacuum Chamber at Spacetron Metal Bellows, a provider of complex, titanium bellows and precision-welded titanium structures for the aerospace industry, where Rick is Chief Operating Officer (COO).

If I didn’t drink so much coffee, I’d have the steady welder’s hand that he has.

Are you looking to hire in the coming year?
Yes, I would like to start hiring once students graduate from the welding program at COC. They will join the Valencia Welding team to do welding and fabricating services and make repairs on site at local restaurants. Also, we were invited to participate in the second annual business expo/job fair, which will be held at the OLPH campus in Santa Clarita.

Going the extra mile for our customers.
On one occasion, I was clear across the Santa Clarita Valley when one of our customers called and needed a weld repair on a critical stainless steel mold. Without this weld repair, they would not be able to proceed with the production of their products. Plus, the customer was at their facilities waiting to see the production of their product get back online. So I got a call at 7:00AM in the morning and had to go across town and be at my customer’s facility within the hour to perform the weld repair. I arrived within the hour, completed the weld repair, and my customer and their customer were very happy with the results and the production went back on track.

What niche are you serving with your business?
The niche of Valencia Welding is a quick turnaround to work closely with our customers to get their product completed.

What products and/or services do you offer?
We offer welding and fabricating services.

What kind of promotions do you have?
N/A

What do you like about working in the Santa Clarita Valley?
I love working in the Santa Clarita Valley. The people and businesses are great. We are like a big family.

In terms of your business, what are you looking forward to in the coming year?
I am looking forward to expanding the business into the Antelope and San Fernando Valleys as well as working together with the Welding Department at the College of the Canyons (COC) to train welders for this type of welding.

How did you go about getting your business started?
I saw a need for commercial welding services in the Santa Clarita Valley, so I launched Valencia Welding to serve machine shops and manufacturing companies in Valencia’s industrial parks. We started off doing repairs on aluminum injection molds, welding hardware for our customer’s products and fabricating steel tables and storage racks.Now, VWI has launched a new service, specializing in restaurant weld repairs, fabrication and installation of stainless steel and aluminum kitchen equipment.

The Valencia, CA-based company, which looks forward to helping local restaurants make kitchen repairs and keep costs down in lieu of replacing kitchen appliances with on-site repairs, wants to give people an opportunity see the kind of work they can expect.

Preparing the stainless steel backing for installation

The kitchen at the meeting hall of Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Catholic Church required the expedited installation of stainless steel steam tables in time for the first day of school after Winter Break on Monday, January 4, 2010. Here are a few snapshots of what went into installing the tables: